With the delta variant surging and the start of school 10 days away, the North Little Rock School Board unanimously approved a resolution to encourage masking.
The resolution is not a mask mandate, said Superintendent Gregory Pilewski, but rather an attempt to promote masking in schools and to encourage the General Assembly to revise the state law prohibiting school mask mandates.
"We can't mandate or require masks, we can only highly encourage and promote that," Pilewski said.
The resolution calls on the Legislature to "suspend, amend or repeal" the mask mandate prohibition and to "allow public school districts in Arkansas the flexibility to implement mask requirements."
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Members of the school board said masks are a necessity as the highly transmissible delta variant sent case numbers soaring. At least 55% of the school district's employees are vaccinated and 1% of students ages 12 to 18 are, Pilewski said, adding both numbers are probably higher as some have been vaccinated "individually."
But regardless of vaccination status, the school board said in its resolution, citing recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, that it recommends everyone age 2 and up wear a mask, whether vaccinated or not.
"There's a lot we can do less than a mandate," said board member Tracy Steele
While North Little Rock, like many school districts around the state, required masks for students and teachers alike last school year, the state legislature passed a law in April, Act 1002, prohibiting state and local governments from instituting mask mandates.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson called the Legislature back into session Tuesday, asking lawmakers to amend the mask mandate ban. But just hours before Thursday night's school board meeting, bills to amend state law on mask mandates were voted down in committee.
Pilewski said the state law would mean the school district will have to change signs on its building requiring masks to masks being recommended.
The resolution school board came just a day before a Pulaski County judge was set to hear a lawsuit today challenging the legality of the state ban on mask mandates.